To see the lack of integration between water and the other passenger services, go to TfL’s Journey Planner website at http://journeyplanner.tfl.gov.uk/. Start at the O2 and end the journey at Tower Hill. The guidance begins ‘Walk to North Greenwich’. Is it surprising that London River Services can’t get the pier information right when TfL still appear to be unaware that there is a very well used pier at O2?

I don’t want to detract from the riparian campaigning of Chris Roberts but I believe that the continuing conversations between Shaun Collins, CEO of Thames Clippers, and Tfl might be rather more substantive than Chris Roberts’ petition. A couple of years ago I invited the Board of TfL for an afternoon out on the Thames and Shaun Collins, always a friend of those supporting river passenger and freight transport, provided the Hurricane Clipper, free of charge. Dave Wetzel led the TfL contingent and representatives of the PLA and London First also joined the trip. One of the points made was the need for integrating the Oyster Card system and I also pushed for closer alignment of bus stops with operating piers and for the Journey Planner to include the river services.

It’s beginning to change with Thames Clippers announcing Oyster card use later this year but bus stops are often still a long way from the piers and the information given at the piers – and on Journey Planner- still leaves a lot of room for improvement as the comments have shown.

In 2012 we will really need a good river service else London Transport will grind to a complete halt. The main Olympics site lies alongside the River Lee and the Lee runs into the Thames and is also linked by the Limehouse Cut to the marina at Limehouse basin. A boat service from Thames side rail termini to Limehouse and thence to Bow Locks would keep a lot of visitors off the other, already congested services. And then there are the canals that also link to Limehouse and the Lee.

The river remains a grossly underutilised transport resource and it offers the most pleasant mode of travel, specially on a bright sunny day. But TfL still suffers the legacy of Ken Livingstone who once told me that Thames transport could never be energy efficient because of the ‘fierce tides’. Every trip against the tide is matched by one going with the tide. Ken, who rarely listened to anyone disagreeing with him, just walked off in the middle of my reply.

Yes, river services could be improved but only when Transport for London begin to understand the river’s potential and its tidal nature. The pressure for improvement needs to kept up, not on Thames Clippers but on TfL. Anyone who is interested, let me know.

roytindle@gmail.com
Creekside Forum.

With regard to the web site information – it may have been on the Thames Clippers site but this information was not on the Transport for London web site – nor was it yesterday because i checked. And we can’t all check the internet before catching a boat.

As i mentioned: the pier was open and lit, so was the waiting room, the indicator board said the services were still running, it was perfectly reasonable to assume they were running. I wasnt the only one waiting that night so it wasnt jus me being stupid.
Any how I hope you continue to enjoy the boats and that you dont encounter the same problem as me.

I wish you joy with South Eastern or TFL but I fear you may be “cutting off your nose to spite your face” by boycotting the boats over this incident.

In the past whenever I had a complaint about the service (and there were plenty of teething problems in the early days of the service with the new boats) an email to the CEO Sean Collins elicited a phone call within a few hours to apologise and explain how the problem would be put right going forward.

The indicator boards at piers have never really worked that well. I think they work in on the same system as the bus stop tickers and therefore may well not be under the control of the boat company.

I have always found the company’s email alert service is pretty good at informing you if there are any disruptions. For instance on Monday afternoon, after the snow, the following email was sent:

“Kindly note that due to the inclemant weather & for the safety of our crew returning home this evening, we have had to cancel part of the service this evening.
The last Westbound boat from Woolwich will depart at 21h38.
The last Eastbound boat from Waterloo will depart at 22h45.”

On balance I think that compared to all the other options the boats are pretty good. Without them I would not have been in work on Monday as there were no other practical options to getting from Greenwich to the West End in the snow.

The services are not perfect, but these days 95% turn-up on time and it is infinitely better than any other option. Who would choose to be squashed like a sardine on the trains or DLR when you could be guaranteed a comfortable seat with space to work while you travel? I will happily accept some variability due to seasonal tides for a tranquil commute in a clean and pleasant environment.

Regarding personal safety, my wife and I find that the Clippers are infinitely safer than South Eastern Railway or the buses as the boats are crewed at all times and the piers manned during peak hours.

In short the boats are something we in Greenwich are very lucky to have and I fear that in the midst of recession we need to use them or lose them. Removing the subsidy would be a very easy way for Boris to tighten his belt and I am not sure that the economics of the commuter service stack-up as a pure private enterprise.